“The Storm” by Kate Chopin is a short story that touches on the controversial subject of adultery. The two characters Calixta and Alcee were both happily married. They reunited spontaneously during the midst of a severe storm, when old feelings resurfaced. Their actions out of lust were feelings they had long forgotten. Soon enough the storm had calmed, and the two parted ways; smiling back at each other they said their goodbyes. Their actions were without the intention of being deceitful, but rather uncontrollable. In the end it is ironic that the infidelity strengthened one marriage’s relationship and made the other character realize the importance of marriage through his wrong doings.
Calixta is the wife of Bobinot, also the mother of their four year old son Bibi. The day the storm brewed in she was preoccupied sewing, unaware of the rolling clouds. Calixta obliviously did not worry for the boys’ safety in the storm, as Bobinot and Bibi were away in town. She was a caring wife and mother though. As soon as she realized the situation she rushed outside to grab her husband’s trousers and such hanging on a linen line to save from the rainfall. There outside was where she saw Alcee Laballiere. With good intentions she let Alcee wait out the storm on her porch. Though the severity of the rain led Alcee to proceed inside, Calixta could not help but fear for the well being of her husband and son. As the hard sheets of rain pounded the shingles, she became more afraid and concerned for young Bibi and hoped they were safe. Looking out at the storm, Calixta began to cry and staggered backwards into Alcee’s surrounding arms. ‘“Bonte!” she cried, releasing herself from his encircling arm and retreating from the window,’ (Vol. C 533...
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...hanged dramatically after her affair. She was grateful and satisfied with her marriage more than ever before. “When the three seated themselves at the table they laughed much and so loud that anyone might have heard them as far away as Laballiere’s” (Vol. C 534). On the other hand, Alcee Laballiere can also be considered as a dynamic character. After his acts of infidelity, he wrote a very loving letter to his wife. Alcee had a change of heart and unselfishly requested her stay away for a little longer, if that would make her happy. He continued and wrote, “though he missed them, he was willing to bear the separation a while longer-realizing that their health and pleasure were the first thing to be considered” (Vol. C 534). Alcee realized that his care and love for his wife was greater than his selfish needs that would detract her from something that made her happy.
During this time a storm develops leaving them stranded seeking shelter. Alce, the character who appears to be Calixta first love suddenly appears at her house as she is alone seeking shelter from the storm himself. They had not laid eyes on each other since Calixtra was married which from a passage in the text indicated it had been five years at this points “She was a little fuller of figure than five years before” (The Storm, by Kate Chopin). Surprised to see him she invited him in which resulted in the room being filled with feelings and the sensation of flesh they craved for each other. Like the scene in Titanic they drift away making love to each other passionately. At the beginning Calixtra fights to resist the temptation “Bont! She cried, releasing herself from his encircling arms and retreating from the window” (The Storm, by Kate Chopin) but is ultimately overpower by temptation. Calixtra’s moment of awakening comes when Bobint and Bibi returns and she affectionately attends to her husband and effusively kissing her son. In this moment she see what she has, an amazing family. This is a women how just cheated on her husband with a man she has held feelings for but the love for her husband a family unit holds more values, weirdly it took her committing a wrong deed to realize this. Her moment of awakening in the case was positive though
This story focuses on the extra-marital affair a housewife named Calixta has while her husband and son are away due to a storm. Although we learn that Calixta has an affair we also know that she doesn’t completely defy the Cult of Domesticity. From the story we get the idea that she remained pure until she married her husband and as Chopin tells us in page 689 “She had not seen him very often since her marriage, and never alone,” this line suggest that even if she saw her past lover around she would not speak to him because neither of them were ever alone and they both didn’t want to disrespect their marriages. In addition Calixta seems to be a very good housewife and mother. She appears to be always tending her home. In page 689 we learn that “[sitting} at a side window sewing furiously on a sewing machine. [Calixta] was greatly occupied and did not notice the approaching storm.” She is so focused on her chores that she didn’t even notice a storm. For Calixta sewing and doing chores around the house is what is normal. She has assumed a role as a married woman and mother and she is fulfilling it. Before the affair you can say that by societies expectations she was a true woman, she kept her virginity until marriage, she makes sure her house chores are done, and she takes care of her family. Even after the affair she acts as if nothing has
During the turbulent storm in the story, Kate Chopin depicts that the marriage of Calixta and Bobinôt is going downhill. Both Bobinôt and Calixta are trapped in different locations during the storm. Bobinôt is in a general store and Calixta is at home. Not only are they in different places during the physical storm but they are also in different places on where their marriage stands. Calixta exposes the reader to see that her husband, Bobinôt, does not understand her because during the storm she is buried in the arms of another man. Calixta makes it apparent that she needs more from her husband and if he is not going to give her what she needs, she will find it in another man. The story depicts that Bobinôt did not give his wife the attention she needs when Bibi asked, “Mama’ll be ’fraid, yes” and Bobinôt responds by saying, “She’ll shut the house. Maybe she got Sylvie helpin’ her this evenin’” but Bibi corrects him by saying, “No; she ent got Sylvie. Sylvie was helpin’ her yistiday” (Chopin 96). Bobinôt shows that he is not attentive to what is happening around the home with his wife during this part of the story. Bobinôt’s inattentiveness must cause him to not unders...
“Like a river flows so surely to the sea darling, so it goes some things are meant to be.” In literature there have been a copious amount of works that can be attributed to the theme of love and marriage. These works convey the thoughts and actions in which we as people handle every day, and are meant to depict how both love and marriage can effect one’s life. This theme is evident in both “The Storm” by Kate Chopin and “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Gilman; both stories have the underlying theme of love and marriage, but are interpreted in different ways. Both in “The Storm” and in “The Yellow Wallpaper,” the women are the main focus of the story. In “The Storm” you have Calixta, a seemingly happy married woman who cheats on her husband with an “old-time infatuation” during a storm, and then proceeds to go about the rest of her day as if nothing has happened when her husband and son return. Then you have “The Yellow Wallpaper” where the narrator—who remains nameless—is basically kept prisoner in her own house by her husband and eventually is driven to the point of insanity.
Edna Pontellier, the protagonist of Kate Chopin’s The Awakening (1899) who would not allow anyone to possess her, is an example of how the cult of domesticity, prevalent in the nineteenth century, oppressed women as passionless mothers who worship their husbands. While Edna isolates herself from her husband, Leonce, she also isolates herself from her children and, thus, from motherhood. However, Chopin utilizes the motherhood metaphor to illustrate Edna’s own rebirth as she awakens throughout the novel. Exploring Chopin’s tale through feminist literary theory and the cult of domesticity, the metaphor of motherhood through Edna’s own maternity as well as her metaphorical rebirth becomes apparent.
The first thing I noticed about Kate Chopin’s “The Storm,” is that it is utterly dripping with sexual imagery and symbolism. Our heroine, if you will, seems to be a woman with normally restrained passions and a well-defined sense of propriety, who finds herself in a situation that tears down her restraint and reveals the vixen within. I wonder if it was intentional that the name Calixta makes me think of Calypso – the nymph from Greek mythology. If half of the sexual symbolism I found in this story was intentional, Chopin was a genius. I was quite taken with the sexual imagery of the colors mentioned: white, and red. There is also mention a place called Assumption, while there’s nothing written on it in the bible, I believe it’s the popular opinion of those of Christian faiths, that Mary (Jesus’ mother) going to heaven was called “The Assumption.” Again, I cannot accept that as merely a happy coincidence, I believe its mention in the story was intentional. Finally, we have the storm, so central to the theme of the story that it was named for it. In this work, as well as others by Chopin, there is a recurring theme of infidelity, or women behaving in ways that society generally doesn’t accept, women behaving badly, if you will, I cannot help but wonder if Kate Chopin used her writing to express desires that she would not otherwise have expressed.
The short story “The Storm” by Kate Chopin, deals with the subject of adultery. The story takes place in the early 1900’s. There are two main characters, Calixta (the wife) and Alcee (the former lover). Alcee must take refuge from a passing storm in Calixta’s house, while he is there the two end up making love while Calixta’s husband and son have to wait out the storm at the local store. By doing this Chopin implies the theme that is, adultery is natural and does not necessarily have negative consequences. Through out the story the constant changing of imagery plays a great role in the development of characters and their ability to demonstrate the theme.
Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” tries to shed light on the conflict between women and a society that assign gender roles using a patriarchal approach. Specifically Margaret Bauer highlights, that most of Chopin’s works revolves around exploring the “dynamic interrelation between women and men, women and patriarchy, even women and women” (146). Similarly, in “The Story of an Hour” Chopin depicts a society that oppresses women mostly through the institution of marriage, as women are expected to remain submissive regardless of whether they derive any happiness. The question of divorce is not welcome, and it is tragic that freedom of women can only be realized through death. According to Bauer, the society depicted in Chopin’s story judged women harshly as it expected women to play their domestic roles without question, while on the other hand men were free to follow their dream and impose their will on their wives (149).
In Kate Chopin’s “The Storm”, she offers an intoxicating account of two souls awakened by a storm. The story was composed on July 19, 1898. At this time in history women were considered objects, their sole purpose in life was to serve their husbands. In addition, social stratification was an important aspect of society that determined who they married. Calixta’s marriage could have been a product of an arrangement, making it of unnatural origin. Chopin points out singular characteristics of the storm to shed light on the uncommon strength of a marriage when it is not determined by social norms. Consequently, Chopin brings Calixta and Alceé together to embellish their passion, in which Calixta plays an active role rather than a submissive one.
In the beginning of the story, Bobinot and his son Bibi stay at a store to let the storm pass by. Calixta, the wife, is at home by herself doing some chores around the house. As the storm starts to approach, Alcee rides in and asks Calixta if he could come in until the storm passes. It starts to rain immediately after he arrives. It's important to know that Alcee and Calixta had a past together, which he brings up to her later in the story.
... The affair brews, it happens, and then it is over. But as we know another storm will happen and so will the affair between these two characters. When Alcée sends a letter to his wife saying that she must not rush home, this is an indication that Alcée may expect to see Calxita again soon. “Mrs. Chopin may refuse to sit judgment on morals, but she covers only one day and one storm and does not exclude the possibility of later misery” (Koloski 145). Kate Chopin ends the story with the idea that this may have been first time but is certainly not the last time will this happen.
Alcée, a planter and a man of the outer sphere enters Calixta’s domain with good intentions. Alcée, a man with much respect and honor for Calixta, greets her and acknowledges that she is a married woman. He greets her by name and properly asks permission to wait out of the storm on her porch. She properly addresses him as “M’siur Alcée” when she greets him. Alcee, who happened to live nearby, could have ridden on through the storm, but he did not. Instead, as Lawrence I. Berkove claims, Alcee’s “wish to escape a drenching in Calixta’s home is “innocent” (90).
Calixta and Alce, the two main characters in the short story “The Storm” by Kate Chopin, are sexual, mature, and knowing adults. By having them discover amazing sex outside their marriages, they return to their own marriages renewed. Chopin openly condones adultery due to the fact that the characters are not punished and in the end “everyone was happy” (paragraph 40) . A common theme of fresh sexuality and desire is seen in this story though symbols and other literary elements. Kate Chopin is an American author that wrote short stories and novels in the 20th century.
Kate Chopin’s The Story of an Hour is a brilliant short story of irony and emotion. The story demonstrates conflicts that take us through the character’s emotions as she finds out about the death of her husband. Without the well written series of conflicts and events this story, the reader would not understand the depth of Mrs. Mallard’s inner conflict and the resolution at the end of the story. The conflict allows us to follow the emotions and unfold the irony of the situation in “The Story of an Hour.”
For instance in the story The Storm illustrated the marriage life of two couples that are passing throughout a difficult phase of their marriage and infidelity is performed by men/women. The women characters represented a devoted wife and mother responsible of her duties. They display the kindness and affection that women should demonstrate to their family. Regarding their values, women can be driven by their emotions and commit infidelity. One of the couples, the wife cheat on her husband, but then she realizes that what she has done is unappropriated. However, she confirms her loved to her husband and she could not image her life without him and want to keep her family united. In society preconception about women cheating on their husband is inconsiderable and unacceptable. On the past is was a sin or even worst the life of women were the punishment of infidelity. On the other hand, the husband cheats on his wife who is in a trip with his sons, after the infidelity he communicates to his wife to stay longer if she wants. His wife Clarisse found appropriate to stay away longer from her husband, because